Five Conversations and a Dinner Date
by WriterorWhatever
Summary: The one where Sirius is a cashier and both Remus and Sirius bond over their poor eating habits. Non-magic!AU, Modern!AU, Warning for Mentions of Homophobia.


Based on this prompt: "I work part-time as a cashier at the local corner store and you come here regularly to shop and bond with me over the microwavable chicken bites so how about I take you out on a proper date instead? AU" (Blog: origami-teacup)

The first time they talked, it had been after a couple of weeks after Sirius started working there. He'd gotten to know basically everyone in town, considering he worked close to 30 hours a week and it was the only grocery store in their teeny tiny town, except the cute guy who he'd seen in here a couple of times, but hadn't come to his checkout lane, using the singular self-checkout. Today though, the self-checkout was down due to some malfunction or other (Sirius does not feel the least bit guilty for hoping it'd be down on a day when he was working and cute beanie-and-sweater-boy was here), and Sirius got to have the honor of checking him out, in both senses of the word. Now that the moment had come though, he hadn't a clue what to say. He watched the cute boy unload his little shopping basket onto the checkout counter, cursing his luck, how the hell could he strike up a conversation over toothpaste and strawberry yogurt? But then, he pulled out a box of Sirius's honest to god favorite convenience food- microwavable chicken nuggets.

"God, I love these," Sirius scanned the item in question as he said it, and the comment elicited a small smile from cute sweater guy.

"Yeah? They were on sale, and, honestly, freelance journalism doesn't pay that well, so" God, Sirius thought, he even _sounds_ cute: deep, smooth voice that flows like warm honey.

"Well, neither does being a cashier, but what can you do?" The guy laughed at that, just a small chuckle that sent shivers down Sirius's spine, causing him to pause for maybe just a moment too long before he told him his total.

"See you around, Sirius," The stranger said, handing him the money and grabbing his bag of purchases, small smile still in place.

As he watched him walk away, Sirius couldn't understand how the guy knew as name.

When he looked down to scan the next customer's items, he saw his nametag and figured it out.

The next time Sirius was working and saw the mystery sweater guy come in, the self-checkout was working, and he couldn't help but be a little disappointed. The disappointment was short lived when the cutie bypassed the self-checkout and went to Sirius's empty checkout lane.

"No self-checkout today?" Sirius knew it had potential to sound a little weird that he knew about it, but he couldn't help himself- he was curious.

"Nope, opted for some human contact for once." He had a small smile, like he wasn't weirded out that Sirius noticed, or that he asked.

"Happy to be of service then," Sirius quipped in reply, and if he was using a slightly flirty tone of voice, then that was a mere coincidence, "I see you got the chicken nuggets again, even though I know they're not on sale this week. That good, huh?"

"Well, with your stellar review and their cook time of a minute and a half, how could I resist?" Sirius wasn't sure, but sweater boy might be flirting back.

"They are a true culinary masterpiece." Once again, they both wore smiles when he handed Sirius the money and took his bag, their hands brushing a little during both exchanges.

The next time, Sirius had a bit of a line at his checkout, as it was actually a decent time of day and not twenty minutes before closing, and Beanie-Sweater-Boy still came to his lane. Sirius smiled and tried to check out the four people in front of him as quickly as possible without being rude.

Once he had checked out the people in front of him, the guy put his stuff on the checkout counter, and Sirius was surprised, but slightly delighted, that he didn't have to initiate the conversation this time, "Not your usual shift today?" The guy was teasing a little, with a playful smirk on his face.

"Not your usual time to come in here, either," Sirius teased right back.

"Ah, you got me there, but I was out of chicken nuggets, and, honestly, they've become like half my diet." Sirius laughed at that, because those chicken nuggets were half of his diet as well, much to the dismay of his health nut roommate James.

"Mine, too. They've probably made them addicting or something. That's what my roommate is always telling me anyway, he hates that I eat them."

"I'm afraid to check the ingredients, honestly, because he might be right." They both laughed at that.

"My roommate would probably check for us if I asked," That elicited another deep chuckle, "Anyway, your total is 27 dollars and 53 cents." Sweater guy handed him his money, smile on his face, grabbed the plastic grocery bag with the chicken nuggets in it, and left out the automatic sliding doors. Sirius watched him go, looking down only right before he reached the door, and saw that he had forgotten his second plastic bag.

He thought about yelling, but he didn't know his name and the guy was already outside. He grabbed the bag, thankful that there wasn't anybody at his till, and went out after him. He scanned the small parking lot and spotted sweater guy walking toward an old, beat-up, silver Ford Fiesta on the far side of the lot, "Hey, you forgot your bag!" Either he didn't hear him or he didn't realize that Sirius was yelling at, because he didn't turn around or stop, so Sirius decided to run after him before he could get into his car.

He caught up with him just as he was putting his bag in the passenger seat and closing the door, "Hey, you forgot your other bag. I tried yelling after you to tell you before you either realized and had to come in or left without it but you didn't hear me, or maybe you didn't know I was yelling after you, and I didn't know you name, so here I am." He said all of that in between harsh breaths, from his run across the parking lot, and he completely missed the full-fledged smile from the guy.

"Remus." Sirius didn't miss the smile that time, and he mirrored it with one of his own.

"Here's your bag, Remus," they were both still smiling for quite a while after the encounter.

The fourth conversation they had happened was short. It was late, fifteen minutes to ten, only forty-five minutes from closing, when Remus came in and made a beeline for the frozen food section. Instead of the chicken nuggets Sirius was expecting, Remus emerged with a bag of frozen peas. He also paused by the self-checkout, clearly considering it, but he came to Sirius's till after a moment of thought. When Sirius got a look at his face, he understand the frozen peas and the hesitation, Remus was sporting a black eye, which had swollen almost completely shut, and what might be a broken nose.

"Oh my god, Remus, what happened?" Sirius wasn't yelling, though a part of him really wanted to (not at Remus, but whoever did this to him), but his voice clearly carried his concern.

"Some guys saw me at the cafe with free wifi up the street and decided they didn't like the patches on my bag or the stickers on my laptop and they jumped me outside when I left. They weren't really that strong, but my eye hurts like hell." Remus answered him, but his tone was guarded, like he wasn't sure how Sirius would react.

"Why the hell would they do that over some stickers?" Sirius did raise his voice a little that time, outraged at these idiots. Remus just held up the canvas messenger bag adorned with Pride pins and various patches, one of which was a Pride Flag, and, suddenly, Sirius understood, "Oh my God. Tell me you're going to the cops about this right, it's a hate crime Remus!" At Sirius's reaction, Remus stood a little less tense, the worry that Sirius would react similarly to the dicks who jumped him now gone.

"I am, my roommate is meeting me here, since I walked to the cafe, but I came to get this for my eye first," He said, holding up the bag of frozen peas he'd just payed for.

"Good," Sirius said with a small smile.

Remus moved out of the way of the girl behind him and went to stand next to Sirius as he waited for his roommate, clearly not wanting to go back outside until his roommate was here in his car. He was only there for the few minutes it took Sirius to ring up the girl buying tampons and chocolate milk before his phone made a small _ding_. "It's Peter, my roommate, he said he's waiting right by the door in his car. I'm going to go."

"Be safe," Sirius said, still a little concerned even though he knew Remus was going somewhere safe.

The fifth time they talked, Sirius had finally worked up the nerve to ask Remus to dinner. It was only early afternoon on a Tuesday, and Sirius was spending his fifteen minute break outside on a bench by the storefront, basking in the autumn sunlight. He sat outside, soaking up the warmth, when Remus came up to him and sat next to him. "How am I supposed to buy my chicken nuggets if you're out here?" Even with his eyes closed, Sirius could tell that Remus had that little teasing smirk on his face.

"Well, maybe you should forgo your evening portion of chicken nuggets and come to dinner with me instead?" He surprised himself with how smoothly that came out, considering how nervous the thought of asking Remus out made him.

"Like a date?"

"Uh, yeah, but, uh, it doesn't have to be if you don't want to. I mean we could just have a dinner as friends and it doesn't have to fancy or anything. I was just thinking like that cute little diner on Main Street that that really old couple owns."

Sirius's rambling was cut short by Remus, "I'd love to. Go on a date that is." That gorgeous small smile was back on his gorgeous olive face and Sirius was smiling too.

"Good, that's good. I'd like that too."

"I guess I'll go then, since I'm not in need of chicken anymore. Meet you there at seven thirty?"

"Sounds great."

Sirius was pacing in front of the Wallflower Diner, ten minutes before Seven Thirty. He couldn't go in, he didn't want Remus to think he didn't show, and he was so nervous that he came early and now he was here, pacing. He really shouldn't have worried, because, after three minutes of pacing and seven minutes before the agreed upon time, he saw Remus walking up the sidewalk, light wash jeans, maroon cable knit sweater, grey beanie, and white high tops, and Sirius wasn't sure he ever saw him look that gorgeous before.

"You clean up nice," Remus said, smiling at Sirius, who had stopped pacing when he saw Remus approaching and had opted to lean against the wall of the old brick diner, one leg up and bent to rest on the wall, arms crossed, watching Remus walk.

"Well, I do, but you've only seen me in my work uniform which does not include ripped jeans or leather." He said, joking, and gesturing to his outfit of a white t-shirt under his favorite black, worn, soft leather jacket, ripped dark wash jeans, and black leather combat boots.

"I like your hair down too, never seen it like that before." Remus still had that small smile as he reached toward him and wound one of the soft strands of shoulder length black hair that framed Sirius's face.

"Yeah, well, dress code at work says it has to be short or up so," He tried to sound nonchalant, but he was blushing as Remus continued to gently twirl the lock of hair. "So, should we go in?"

Remus let the piece of hair rest back with the other and grabbed his hand, "Yeah, in is good."

Throughout dinner, the two of them laughed and made small talk with the waitress and it was probably the best dinner he'd had in a really long time. At the end of dinner, outside, Remus and Sirius stood, facing each other, both getting ready to head their separate ways.

Remus reached out and grabbed Sirius's hand, "I had a really good time at dinner tonight, Sirius."

"Me too, we should do it again sometime."

"That we should," As soon as the words had left Remus's lips, he was leaning forward, eyes drifting closed and head tilting slightly, and he kissed Sirius, soft and sweet and slow. They didn't kiss for very long, maybe thirty seconds, but Sirius was left a little out of breath and he wanted to do it again soon, like right now. So he did, sweet and slow again, and Remus tasted like cinnamon and the vanilla ice cream they'd had for dessert.

"Tomorrow for lunch work for you?" Remus asked when they'd pulled apart.

"Sounds good, same place?"

"It's a date."


End file.
